The DVD started off with some eighties theme music and some footage from the upcoming DVD was shown. You could tell that the production values were excellent and that there was a great contest up ahead. This was better than the 1986 Mr. Olympia DVD where the film quality was not as good.

Gothenburg, Sweden
October 31, 1987

#1 Herman Hoffend
Germany

Herman's posing routine consisted of hitting the most muscular pose a lot. The crowd was either cheering like crazy or his posing music. Herman posed to "Out In The Cold" by Judas Priest.

#2 Michael Ashley
USA

Michael posed to the Shaft theme music. He claimed to be natural which was obviously a load of crap. At the very least I will go on record to say I highly doubt that. Michael came into the show in condition but had a somewhat unusual structure noticeable when he hit the front lat spread. His side chest pose was reminiscent of that of Robby Robinson's and he had a strong most muscular pose.

#3 Robby Robinson
USA

Robby posed to the song "Diamond's are a Girl's Best Friend" by Marilyn Monroe. Robby was 41 at the time of this contest and was looking as good as ever. His competitive career spanned another 14 years after this with a strong showing at the 2001 Masters Olympia.

#4 Albert Beckles
Barbados

"Ageless Albert Beckles" who is said to be born either in 1930 or 1938 competed in this contest and had a strong showing. He was shredded and sporting good size. Not bad for a man of his age (whether that was 49 or 57 doesn't even matter - he looked great). It sounded like he was posing to an elevator music version of "The Power of Love" by Celine Dion.

#5 Lee Haney
USA

Lee posed to the same music that he used in his training video. I really enjoyed this routine as it was powerful and he posed with confidence. You could tell that he knew he already won. The music also fit his posing perfectly. While Lee's arms were weak in relation to his torso his back was out of sight. It was huge and shredded and his lat spreads were as wide as can be.

#6 Bertil Fox
England

Bertil posed to the song "Turn me Loose" by Loverboy. Bertil was huge but when I watched this DVD with a friend he said that Bertil had a weak chest, not knowing that Bertil was said to have one of the strongest chests in the history of bodybuilding. I then put on the 1983 Mr. Olympia and he was amazed at how much better Bertil's chest was at the time. Bertil still looked quite good in 1987, but he just wasn't at the same level he was in 1983 when he was robbed. In my opinion he should have been no worse than third. Mohammad Makkawy and Frank Zane had absolutely no business beating him!

#7 Rich Gaspari
USA

Rich looked awesome from the start of his presentation. At the time that I wrote this review (April 2006), Rich was the same age I am when he competed at this show - 24 years and four months. And to think he had developed such an outstanding world class physique already at that age. It was quite amazing. He was big and shredded and had hardness like no other bodybuilder I had ever seen before. Even at the 1985 Mr. Olympia he had the same level of hardness at the young age of 22! Talk about incredible genetics. He made Lee Haney look like a doughboy! Rich posed to "Destiny" by his brother Michael.

#8 Berry DeMey
Holland.

Berry posed to "I Come Undone" by Jennifer Rush. He was big and in fantastic conditioning and was only 25 years old at the time of this show. In a brief interview shown on the DVD with Berry he said he would be 12 pounds heavier at the contest this year and that it would mean trouble for the other guys.

#9 Lee Labrada
USA

Lee posed to the Terminator music. Lee looked good and did genuinely look like something that an artist sculpted from clay, but simply did not have the mass to place where he did at this show - going on to beat Mike Christian! Mike Christian was bigger, harder, in superior condition, taller, and on top of this had great lines to boot! You could see the disappointment on Mike's face when he was placed fourth - if I had to guess he thought he deserved a lot better. Maybe even a victory. He looked so good at the show that I would have had no qualms with Mike winning the whole show. I have plenty of qualms with Lee placing ahead of Mike. He was a work of art but simply did not deserve to beat Mike, just as he did not deserve to beat Gary Strydom at the 1988 Mr. Olympia Contest. In a brief interview with Lee shown during the DVD he said that he felt that he would present a perfect body on stage at the 1987 Mr. Olympia.

#10 Eduardo Kawak
France

Eduardo posed to some interesting music which sounded ceremonial. He posed to it appropriately highlighting his massive and powerful physique quite well. He was known to eat a lot of food back in the day. It showed because he was as massive as can be.

#11 Ulf Larsson
Sweden

Ulf was shredded. He posed to "Winner Takes it All" by ABBA. After reading up on his contest history over on musclememory.com this appeared to be his last contest in a career which only spanned five years. I am a little curious to know what he is up to these days.

#12 Steve Brisbois
Canada

Steve posed to "Drive" by The Cars. He had a pretty balanced physique but did not have the size and overall conditioning to beat the top pros at this show. From what I remember he was only 5'0.

#13 Paul Jean-Guillaume
USA

Paul claimed natural status much like Michael Ashley used to. The only difference being that I actually think it's a lot more likely that Paul was indeed natural. For one thing his photo didn't appear in Balco labs! Secondly he stayed the same weight for years and if he was juicing you would expect him to make consistent gains year after year. He was under 200 pounds and probably just had excellent genetics for size and in particular - shape.

#14 John Hnatyschak
USA

John had some excellent delts and abs which sat on a midsection quite capable of turning into a vacuum. He had wide flaring lats and looked taller than the 5'6 that he was. His delts looked particularly impressive as did his back complete with Christmas tree. John was definitely a complete bodybuilder who stopped competing in 1989 for 12 years to come back and place very well at both the 2001 and 2002 Masters Olympia Contests. He seemed to be posing to some theme music for a TV show if I recall correctly (Knot's Landing?). The song had no lyrics.

#15 Ron Love
USA

Ron looked damn good and was 36 years old at the time of the show. Ron posed to "Careless Whisper" by George Michael before his posing music picked up the speed to pose to "Bad" by Michael Jackson.

#16 Mike Christian
USA

At 6'1 and around 250 pounds ripped to shreds, Mike Christian looked incredible. His back was huge and detailed, his delts and triceps were huge and striated, and his lat spread was out of sight as usual. His side chest was as big as can be and his waist was tiny. I could have seen him winning the whole show, but you can make a very good argument that both Lee Haney and Rich Gaspari deserved to beat him. As for Lee Labrada - hell no. Lee looked good, but to place ahead of this beast with linebacker dimensions is out of the question. No wonder Mike looked so disappointed at his placing. He posed to the song "Just Flex" and finished his routine with a huge and flaring front lat spread.

#17 Josef Grolmus
Germany

Josef was much like Steve Brisbois at this show in that he didn't have the size and conditioning necessary to beat the top dogs. A respectable showing by any standard, but the competition was deep at this show.

#18 Peter Hensel
Germany

Peter posed to the song "Relax" by Frankie Goes To Hollywood. He was big at 5'10 and at least 230 pounds, but lacked slightly in the genetic structure to place better at this show. He did look very good though.

Posedown Round

The top six then posed down. The top six consisted of Mike Christian, Robby Robinson, Lee Haney, Lee Labrada, Berry DeMey, and Rich Gaspari. They went through the mandatory poses. Mike Christian and Berry DeMey were both 6'1, but I would say that Mike Christian definitely had him beat in terms of size, conditioning, and density. Not to Berry didn't look good - he looke excellent in fact, he was just not the better big man that day. Lee Haney had an awesome shape but simply lacked the conditioning and hardness of Mike Christian and Rich Gaspari. I could have seen Lee in third that night. Shape matters a lot but so does conditioning and hardness and Mike and Rich took Lee to school that night and both made him look soft.

After doing one minute of free posing, Bev Francis did some guest posing to the song "New Attitude" by Patti LaBelle. She was big and in condition but simply too masculine for my tastes. Just my opinion of course, but I have never been a big fan of female bodybuilders.

I'm not so sure that I felt Lee deserved to win. Like I said, Rich made him look as soft as a pillow. Rich was also no slouch in the muscularity department. Admittedly Lee's shape was superior.

A brief interview was conducted after his victory. When asked if he ever had a doubt that he would win the show, Lee said no. LOL...talk about confidence. In this case I would have to say that was a little too confident because he did not dominate the competition. Rich Gaspari and Mike Christian were both very close. The credits then rolled and the crowd cheered for Lee as he hit some poses.

Overall Review:

This was an excellent production and definitely one of the best Olympias I had ever seen. The production values were much better than the 1986 DVD and the quality of the lineup was also quite good. It is definitely worth watching if you enjoy the less over-muscled physiques that competed in the eighties. It was still entertaining to watch and the competitors were in great shape.

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